THE ANNUAL bill for Garda overtime for cases that do not go on is €17 million, more than the DPP’s total bill for counsel fees, the DPP, James Hamilton, told the conference.
This could be substantially reduced by co-operation between the Garda, the Courts Service and his office in finding ways to improve case management and ensure cases went on.
Mr Hamilton said his office was one of the main users of the services of barristers, which cost €15 million last year, paid to 158 barristers, of whom 97 earned more than €50,000.
Although there had been substantial cuts in fees, there was only a marginal fall in the total amount because of the continued expansion of criminal business in Ireland.
He said Ireland was probably unique in that the prosecution service used the services of private practitioners rather than in-house lawyers in advocacy work. This meant every serious case had a second look from an independent lawyer.
It also meant that at trial the DPP could obtain the services of the best advocates who practise criminal law.
In certain jurisdictions the prosecution can be severely disadvantaged because in-house prosecuting lawyers are paid much less than private lawyers who defend.
While at first sight this might look more expensive, it took no account of the fact that an in- house lawyer required expenditure on pension, office accommodation and other facilities, while employing an external barrister required no ongoing commitment to him or her.
Senior counsel Paul McDermott said the criminal Bar provided value for money. He pointed out €56 million was spent on criminal legal aid last year, and the Government had stated its wish to reduce this by €10 million.
In the North, criminal legal aid cost £104 million (€117 million).
He said those working as criminal lawyers were proud of the work they did in prosecuting fairly those who committed offences and giving people a good defence when accused of a crime.
They would look at what they could do to improve the system.
“If there are criminal law practices that should not be engaged in, face up to them. If procedures need changing, change them,” he said.
He pointed out that there had been a number of reports on pre-trial procedures that would not cost a penny, but nothing had been done about them.
He warned that the proposal to transfer to the Legal Aid Board the decision on eligibility for legal aid would lead inevitably to delays and would make the criminal justice system more inefficient.